1. Field of the Invention
A dispenser apparatus for the sanitary dispensing of small stirring straws that are used to stir coffee, soft drinks, and alcoholic beverages where such beverages are sold, served, dispensed, and/or consumed.
2. Description of Related Art
The present invention is an apparatus and associated packaging for the sanitary dispensing of utensils that are used to stir and drink coffee, soft drinks, and alcoholic beverages. There are a variety of such stirring utensils in common use, with the specific design and function dependent upon the particular beverage. Such utensils are typically made of inexpensive plastic such as polypropylene, and as such, are disposable after a single use.
In the consumption of beverages, such utensils typically take the shape of small tubular straws, or rods having an x-shaped cross-section, and are commonly referred to as swizzle sticks, stir sticks, or stir straws. Additionally, the consumption of soft drinks is often done using a plastic tube commonly referred to simply as a straw.
In the serving of beverages, such utensils are typically dispensed with little or no control regarding sanitary practices. In many venues, such as convenience stores and fast-food restaurants, dispensation is “self-serve”, i.e. by the customers. In other situations, dispensation is by bartenders or other staff who are performing a range of duties, many of which are not sanitary. In virtually all of these venues, the dispensing containers for the utensils are devices that result in extensive handling of the utensils by a multitude of unsterile hands. In many instances, the dispensing “device” is simply a cup, into which is dumped a batch of the utensils from a larger storage container.
In view of current self-serve and bartending practice using such dispensing containers, the propagation of hand-borne pathogens is unavoidable. For example, requiring the patrons of convenience stores to wash hands before preparing a self-serve coffee is unrealistic and unenforceable.
Given the numerous other improvements in sanitary practices in food and beverage service in recent years, the unsanitary dispensation of beverage utensils in now among the remaining likely sources of the propagation of hand-borne pathogens such as e.g. E. coli and Salmonella enteritidis, which result in the outbreaks of “food poisoning” such as e.g. hepatitis, widely covered in the media. There is therefore a need for a dispensing apparatus and associated packaging that can handle such utensils in a manner that prevents any contact of a service worker's or customer's hands with an individual utensil dispensed into a drink, and with the remaining utensils contained in the apparatus, wherein the handling of utensils includes the loading of utensils into the dispenser, as well as the dispensation of utensils from the dispenser.
Heretofore, a number of patents and publications have disclosed beverage utensil dispensing apparatus, the relevant portions of which may be briefly summarized as follows:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,445,036 of Sturrock, issued May 20, 1969, discloses a dispenser, which dispenses straws from a hopper out through a slot in a vending machine. Each individual dispensed straw is handled by human hands.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,519,166 of Yingst et al., issued Jul. 7, 1970, discloses a dispenser, which dispenses straws from a hopper out through a port in a vending machine. The straws are loaded into the dispenser by human hands, and each individual dispensed straw is handled by human hands.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,556,344 of Lane et al, issued Jan. 19, 1971, discloses a dispenser, which dispenses straws in a horizontal direction out of the side of a rectangular box-shaped dispenser. The straws are loaded directly into the dispenser from a package, and are not handled by human hands. Each individual dispensed straw is handled by human hands.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,613,948 of Wills, issued Oct. 19, 1971, discloses a dispenser, which dispenses straws in a vertical direction out of the top of a cylindrical dispenser. The straws are loaded into the dispenser by human hands.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,968,901 of Peva, issued Jul. 13, 1976, discloses a dispenser, which dispenses multiple straws simultaneously into beverage pouches. The straws are loaded into the dispenser by human hands.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,124,144 of Radek, issued Nov. 7, 1978, discloses a dispenser, which dispenses vertically oriented straws from a slot in a cylindrical housing. The straws are loaded into the dispenser by human hands, and each individual dispensed straw is handled by human hands.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,567,997 of Portyansky, issued Feb. 4, 1986, discloses a dispenser, which dispenses straws from a hopper out through a horizontal slot in a base. The straws are loaded into the dispenser by human hands, and each individual dispensed straw is handled by human hands.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,318,196 and 5,381,925 of Cervantes et al., issued Jun. 7, 1994 and Jan. 17, 1995, disclose a dispenser, which dispenses straws from a hopper laterally out through a port in a housing. The straws are loaded into the dispenser by human hands, and each individual dispensed straw is handled by human hands.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,743,430 and 5,960,988 of Freixas, issued Apr. 28, 1998 and Oct. 5, 1999, disclose a dispenser, which dispenses straws from horizontal slot in a vending machine. The straws are loaded into the dispenser by human hands, and each individual dispensed straw is handled by human hands.
In the use of all of the above dispensers, a human hand either handles the dispensed utensil in order to transfer it into the beverage for use, or handles the utensils during the filling of the dispensers, or both. Thus these dispensers are not capable of dispensing a beverage utensil directly into a beverage container in a sanitary manner.
Other apparatus for dispensing rod-shaped objects is also disclosed in certain U.S. patents. U.S. Pat. No. 3,737,072 of Deitrick, issued Jun. 5, 1973, discloses a feeding device for cylindrical tubing, comprising a cylindrical wheel having a plurality of circumferentially spaced teeth disposed at the base of a trough, and means for reciprocating such wheel in order to discharge by gravity the cylindrical objects carried between the teeth. U.S. Pat. No. 5,531,312 of Dickey, issued Jul. 2, 1996, discloses an apparatus and method for singulating cylindrical articles, comprised of a rotary vacuum wheel having pockets on the outer periphery thereof for selecting and dispensing such articles. The disclosures of both of these United States patents are incorporated herein by reference. Neither of these disclosures provide a means for the sanitary filling and/or discharge of beverage stirring utensils into or from an apparatus.
Accordingly, embodiments of the present invention are provided that meet at least one or more of the following objects of the present invention:
It is an object of this invention to provide an apparatus for the dispensing of a single beverage utensil directly into a beverage container without contacting a human hand.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an apparatus for the dispensing of a single beverage utensil directly into a beverage container in a sanitary manner.
It is another object of this invention to provide packaged beverage utensils, which can be loaded into a utensil dispensing apparatus without contacting human hands.
It is an additional object of this invention to provide packaging for beverage utensils, which enable such utensils to be loaded into a utensil dispensing apparatus without contacting human hands.